Nine to air Willoughby plans

Nine Entertainment will release redevelopment plans for its Sydney site on Wednesday in an attempt to value the potential of its primary location, even though the television network is not currently intending to sell it or move out.

“We have no plans to sell the site," Nine Network managing director Jeff Browne said. “There are no plans to move from here. But what we want to do is maximise the future value of the site."

Mr Browne said that any sale of Nine’s 2.9 hectares of land at Willoughby, on Sydney’s lower north shore, would most likely be 10 or 20 years away.

Nine will place its redevelopment plans on public exhibition at Willoughby Council on Wednesday as part of an ongoing consultation process. Nine has been driving the redevelopment plans itself over the past two years, but has engaged Lend Lease as a consultant. Lend Lease has brought other consultants into the project.

“They have been assisting us with future development options," Mr Browne said of Lend Lease’s involvement.

The plan’s preferred option incorporates 585 dwellings, ranging from three-storey townhouses to several apartment blocks up to 18 storeys.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

The valuation of the proposed residential development would enable Nine to revalue the land on its balance sheet, he said.

Nine had previously tried to sell its Willoughby site, which provides the home for the TV network, in 2008 but withdrew as the global financial crisis started to hit.

At the time, Charter Hall valued the Willoughby land at about $100 million.

About three years ago Nine sold the land under its former Melbourne studios in Richmond to Lend Lease for about $50 million, and subsequently moved its Melbourne TV studios to Docklands.

The giant TV tower at Willoughby is not part of the redevelopment site. The tower is on a separate piece of land and is jointly owned by Nine, Seven West Media (which owns the Seven Network) and Ten Network through a company called Transmitters Australia.

Nine uses the Willoughby tower as its primary broadcast tower, whereas Seven and Ten use it as a back-up to their primary tower at Gore Hill.

Nine has appointed its Sydney station manager, Scott Soutar, to oversee the Sydney redevelopment plans.